


Dahlias for Ralph

by Sevvyhonda



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Other, abuse tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-06-16 19:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15443847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sevvyhonda/pseuds/Sevvyhonda
Summary: He didn’t deserve this, but it’s what he got. So he picked himself up and became his own support.





	1. Dahlias

**Author's Note:**

> Ralph, as far as I know, was never given a backstory ingame. So... I’m gonna do my best to write a lil somethin for my favorite boy. Could turn into a multi-chapter thing if people want it. For now, Ralph’s first encounter with a child. Also Flowers.

The WR-600 had no name. It never needed one. Public service androids only got names when they dealt directly with humans, and he didn’t. The WR-600 didn’t mind. It couldn’t. It wasn’t designed to mind. 

It was in charge of the ferns, though it had a habit of stealing and planting cuttings around its charge port. He just loved them. Plants never judged or bossed you around. All they asked for was water, sun, and a little love. He wanted that too.

 

A tug at his work outfit shocked him out of his daze, looking down. A human child was there, holding a stuffed rabbit in one arm. They locked eyes. Neither knew what to say. Finally she spoke, walking a little closer to him. 

“Mom said... Mom said I’m not s’posed t’ come near you... But I... I really like your flowers, mister...”

A startled expression hit his face. He smiled, gently picking a flower from the plant he was tending to and handing it to the girl. He wasn’t supposed to communicate with humans, but... This one occasion, he could make an exception. 

**“Oh... Thank you. I’ve been caring for these Dahlias for a while now. They’re my favorites.”**

 The girl’s smile widened, hopping in place as she got more excited. 

“Mine too! Mom named me after Roses, cuz she likes roses. I don’t really like roses though. I wanna be named Dahlia, cuz Dahlias are prettier.”

**”Alright, Dahlia. If you visit me again, maybe we can talk more about flowers. I’d love to hear your thoughts.”**

The girl beamed, hopping from foot to foot in her excitement. WR-600 felt happy. 

“Okay!!”

She ran away, but only got a few steps before stopping in her tracks and turning around.

”Wait! Mister! What’s your name?”

**”WR-600.”**

The girl pulled a face like the name put a bad taste in her mouth, but nodded and ran off, leaving WR-600 to stare into the petals of the Dahlias. 


	2. Snapdragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It may not have been much, but it was all he had. He never complained. Nobody would’ve listened anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HNNGH I’m sorry for updating literally a day later but I couldn’t stop thinking about this!!! Hope you enjoy. Remember, I have absolutely no proofreader and I barely check my stuff after it’s on the page so...

She came back the next day, a woman trailing directly behind her. WR-600 identified the woman as her mother. The one who was afraid of androids. Still, Dahlia smiled at him and waved a little, and he waved back. 

The woman frowned, saying something to Dahlia that WR-600 couldn’t quite hear. They walked away. 

WR-600 didn’t see Dahlia for a week after that, but he made sure to tend to the flowers every day, even when he wasn’t assigned to them. Just in case she came back. 

 

WR-600 was working on the snapdragons when a tiny pair of shoes stopped in front of him. He looked up, and a smile spread across his face when he locked eyes with a pink stuffed rabbit. 

**“Hello, Dahlia! It’s been a while.”**

She didn’t smile, a little sniffle sounding from behind the rabbit. WR-600 looked further up and saw tears dripping from her face, her arms covered in bruises and scrapes. 

”Mom says I can’t talk to you anymore. Mom says you’ll kill me.”

WR-600 would’ve paled if he could. He did the only thing he knew would make her smile. He grabbed his favorite snapdragon from the patch, offering it to her. Something in the back of his head screamed at him for defiling the plants, but he shoved it down. Dahlia needed to smile. 

She sniffled for a second before slowly reaching out, taking the flower and tucking it behind her stuffed rabbit’s ear. 

“...Thanks, Ralph...”

**”Ralph?”**

A little nod. She sat down in the grass, rubbing away her tears. 

“Like on th’ TV. Mom gets mad if I call you Wrsix. She doesn’t get mad if I call you Ralph.”

A fond smile. He nodded. 

**“I think I like Ralph better too. We can both be who we want to be. What do you think, Dahlia?”**

Finally, a smile. She lunged forward, crushing at least three snapdragons, and hugged Ralph. He didn’t hug back- he didn’t exactly know if he was allowed to. But he didn’t pull away. 

“Thanks, Rowf... I- I can’t visit every day... I’ll try to be back! We can talk about flowers more next time, promise!”

**”Alright. I look forward to it.”**

Dahlia nodded and ran away, crushing two more flowers in her frantic sprint. Ralph’s advisor walked over to yell at him about the flowers, but Ralph was stuck in a daze. 

Or, he was until he was hit with a clipboard and forced back into his charge port for the rest of the day. 


	3. Peonies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Though the sun set, he wasn’t ready for the day to end yet. So he broke his chains and chased it into the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three of Dahlias! Hope yall are enjoying it so far! PS: I promise there’s another chapter after this and I promise it’s a lot more heartbreaking.

Mechanics had been called to troubleshoot why WR-600 would’ve let his flowers be crushed underfoot. Why it stared into the city so often, and why it smiled when looking into the dahlia patch. 

They found nothing wrong, but because the park owners refused to pay if it wasn’t fixed, they claimed that his orders weren’t clear enough. That they would have to really drill it into his head if he was going to stop this behavior. 

The supervising android handed them 200 dollars, despite being able to tell they were lying. 

 

Ralph’s reactivations were few and far between from that point on. He was only ever woken up to test his abilities or fill in for another android who needed repairs. He couldn’t figure out why, and all the time he spent in his charge port meant he barely got the chance to think at all. 

His punishments became more severe. What had once been taps on the back of the head now became electric shocks, ranging from barely noticible to frying his circuits. Nothing could keep him from waiting for Dahlia to return. 

He thought days had passed, but it had been years. Dahlia became a teen, then an adult. After a year, she gave up on trying to see him again. She became jaded to the world, so much that even if Ralph recognized her, she wouldn’t even notice him. 

Ralph didn’t know. How could he? His deactivations and reactivations were so spread out that he might as well have been in stasis for the whole time. 

Eventually, he was replaced with a better model. A specialized WR-800. And his charge port was never opened by the staff again.

 

But sometimes, that’s just how it works. 


	4. Marigolds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sun set and he grew tired, but he didn’t fear the night. He slept soundly knowing there would be another dawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a good run, people. This chapter takes place after the events of Dahlias and just before the events of D:BH. The story of Ralph and his reactivation. Big TW for burning and some trauma. An epilogue may be in order if I get the motivation for it. Thanks for sticking through to the end! :D

Ralph rebooted for the first time in years to the brightest thing he’d ever seen. Locked in his charging port, three humans stared at him from the outside. One held a flashlight, one a phone, and the last a container of air freshener. They were talking about Ralph. He could tell, but... He couldn’t hear them from inside.

The one with the flashlight opened the door and he saw their faces. Two women, one man. All smiling in a way he didn’t like. The man with the phone grabbed Ralph, a slight whimper leaving the android’s throat. The one with the air freshener stepped closer to him.

_”Fuckin’ androids. You’re the reason we’re doin’ this, y’hear?! Bastards like you stole our jobs, stole our lives-“_

He analyzed her face, trying to report a crime to the nearest police department. Functionality disabled. Records of her face still showed up in his memory though. Old, corrupted pictures of a little girl with a stuffed rabbit. 

“R- I’m not- It’s Ral-“

**”Torch ‘m already, Doll.”**

She clicked a lighter on and pushed down the plunger of the air freshener. A torrent of fire spread across the park, Ralph’s coding holding him back from fighting her. He still wanted to believe she was his friend, but-

He shoved her back, smashing the man holding him in the ribs in blind rage. Half his face still on fire, he ran as far as he could from the park and hid behind a dumpster ten blocks away.

-

Over the next few weeks, ralph fell into greater and greater disrepair. The burning had damaged his mainframe, giving the robot strange vocal and physical ticks. He’d fashioned a torn cape from an old blanket he’d found in the trash, occasionally using it as a cloak to hide his LED. 

He found a house, long-abandoned and torn to shreds, and made it home. And there he hid, and there he lived, for years to come. 


End file.
